Beijing, 9 Jul (Xinhua) -- NATO's black hand has reached out to the Asia-Pacific region to expose its ugly intentions
Xinhua News Agency reporter
Japanese media recently reported that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit to be held in Lithuania on the 11th and 12th of this month with the leaders of South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In May this year, the media also revealed that NATO plans to set up a liaison office in Japan in 2024. At that time, the Tokyo liaison office will be NATO's first office in Asia.
As a product of bloc confrontation during the Cold War, NATO has continued to expand in recent years, and has also extended its black hands to the distant Asia-Pacific region to seek to strengthen military and security cooperation with some Asia-Pacific countries. Analysts pointed out that NATO's move exposed its ugly intention to undermine Asia-Pacific stability in order to maintain US hegemony.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 7, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong)
The black hand is gradually extending to the Asia-Pacific region
After the end of the Cold War, the question of NATO's future and destiny has been the focus of discussion. But this military alliance did not die, but continued to expand, first eastward against Russia and now trying to venture into the Asia-Pacific.
In fact, as early as 2006, before the NATO Riga summit, the United States advocated the establishment of partnerships with Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Although this move was not recognized by the participants at the summit, public opinion believed that it was actually a process of "Asia-Pacificization" by NATO. Over the years, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand have been regarded by NATO as part of its "global partnership". Especially in recent years, NATO has further increased its attention to the Asia-Pacific region and gradually increased its power projection.
In 2021, NATO formulated the "NATO 2030 Agenda", seeking to revitalize the alliance's strength, promote a new strategic transformation, shift the focus to great power competition, and also propose to actively participate in global affairs, especially "Indo-Pacific affairs". In 2022, NATO's Madrid Summit invited the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to participate for the first time. In January, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Asia and claimed that transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security are closely linked. In June, according to the Nikkei newspaper, NATO will complete a new cooperation plan with Japan this summer, and will develop new cooperation plans with the other three countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron introduces his platform at a press conference in the northern suburbs of Paris in the province of Seine-Saint-Denis on March 17, 2022. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Sean Laurent)
However, there are also different voices within NATO on the issue of expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. French President Emmanuel Macron has made clear his opposition. He noted that if "we push NATO to expand its sphere of influence and geographic reach, we will make a big mistake." Dominique Trancon, a French expert on international issues, said NATO is made up of North Atlantic countries and that Japan is "too far away" from the official NATO range.
All in order to maintain US hegemony
NATO, nominally a transatlantic alliance, is in fact completely dominated by the United States. NATO's encroachment in the Asia-Pacific region serves the needs of the United States to maintain its global hegemonic status and pursue its global strategy.
In recent years, the strategic focus of the United States has become increasingly focused on the Asia-Pacific region. Since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the United States has taken the opportunity to strengthen interaction with Japan and other Asia-Pacific allies, exaggerate Asian security threats, and strive to promote NATO's "Asia-Pacificization". In 2022, NATO issued a new strategic concept document that positioned China as a "systemic challenge".
Woo Shou-geun, director of the South Korean Institute of East Asian Studies, believes that the most fundamental driving force behind NATO's frequent "presence" in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years is to curb China's development momentum and continuously increase its international influence in the context of the Sino-US game.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference after the NATO Special Summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong)
However, the hegemonic interests of the United States are not equal to the interests of its allies, and the US attempt to introduce NATO into the Asia-Pacific region has also aroused the vigilance of many countries. Trancon pointed out that if NATO's center of gravity is shifted from the North Atlantic to Asia, it is clear that China is regarded as a potential enemy, but the position of Europe and the United States on the issue of China is different, and Europeans see China as a partner who must cooperate, not an enemy.
Jøon Mahmoudi, an expert in international relations at the University of Indonesia, also believes that although the United States has been trying to win over countries in the Asia-Pacific region, many countries do not want to become pawns in the struggle between major powers, and "it is difficult for NATO to achieve its so-called alliance goal by 'moving east into the Asia-Pacific'."
Threatening stability in the Asia-Pacific region
Looking back at NATO's history, it is not difficult to see that since the end of the Cold War, wherever NATO's hand has reached, it will create division and chaos: bombing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, launching the Afghan war in the name of "anti-terrorism", invading Iraq, air strikes on Libya... have brought heavy disasters to the local people.
On 9 April 1999, in her village near Chupia, a small town in the Federal Republic of Serbia, 42-year-old Vera Mihalovic stood in front of a bombed-out house and cried. In March 1999, under the banner of "avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe", the US-led NATO forces brazenly bypassed the UN Security Council and bombed the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for 78 days, killing more than 2,000 innocent civilians. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Wen)
Malaysia's Nanyang Siang Pao article said that NATO, as the largest military bloc in the Cold War and post-Cold War period, is the driving force behind the Cold War mentality, zero-sum game and military bloc in the world today, and NATO can be seen in the turmoil in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and other regions.
Analysts pointed out that NATO is still obsessed with the Cold War mentality and bloc politics, dividing "us" and "them" and artificially dividing the world, and if this thinking is brought into the Asia-Pacific region, it may seriously threaten peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world.
Yu Shougen said that under the leadership of the United States, NATO's attempt to continue to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, introducing bloc politics and camp confrontation into Asia, not only increases security risks in the Asia-Pacific region, but may also break the process of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region and slow down or even hinder the development of countries in the region.
Tang Zhimin, director of the China-ASEAN Research Center at Thailand's CP Business School, said that ASEAN countries have always been vigilant and worried about NATO's intervention in Asia, believing that this may bring the risk of military conflict and arms race to the Asia-Pacific region, and force some Asia-Pacific countries to deviate from their independent principles.
As the "pawn" of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan sings peace with NATO and is willing to be a springboard for NATO to intervene in Asia-Pacific affairs. Kumiko Haba, an emeritus professor at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, believes that more Japanese people should be made aware of the threat posed by NATO and stop the Japanese government's increasingly strengthened military line. (Participating reporters: Liu Si, Tang Ji, Mao Pengfei, Lu Rui, Song Yu, Wang Ona, Guo Dan)